Luminato festival lights up Toronto

The calendar of events for Toronto’s 10-day cultural arts festival Luminato is by turns inspiring and overwhelming.

The range of possibilities for the festival that runs from June 8-17 and embraces music, literature, dance, theatre, film, visual arts and food is so vast its brochure is 68 pages long.

It includes marquee events like the premiere of the first instalment in Quebec icon Robert Lepage’s new quartet of plays, the staging of the revolutionary Einstein on the Beach contemporary opera by Philip Glass and Robert Wilson, and a concert honouring the late folksinger Kate McGarrigle.

Interspersed with that are a celebration of street food presented by the city’s top chefs, literary readings and discussions, film screenings, outdoor visual art exhibitions, dance performances, as well as ruminations on the War of 1812 and how the United States has coveted Canada ever since. Oh, and music concerts every night, with roughly 80 per cent of the events free to the public.

The festival’s great diversity has also served as something of an albatross, with critics complaining it’s a cultural event in search of an identity (it has “always suffered from a personality split between populist street fair and elite contemporary arts festival,” the Globe and Mail wrote recently) with the result would-be participants are not quite sure where to join in.

It needn’t be so complicated. There are two ways to plan a successful visit, suggests Norman Zagier, tourism spokesperson for Luminato, which is now in its sixth year.

The first is to choose the marquee event that interests you most. Since each major performance features offshoot events such as in-theatre 90-minute talks with the show directors, or free lunchtime discussions with the creators, as well as films and artistic installations related to some of the works, the interested will have a wide variety of opportunities to learn more about their top picks.

Some of the marquee events include:

Einstein on the Beach, a contemporary opera in four acts first produced by Philip Glass and

Robert Wilson in 1976. Luminato’s production will be the first time the piece, considered a revolutionary masterwork, has been produced in two decades. It will be the only

staging in Canada before moving on to New York, where, Zagier notes, tickets will be close to impossible to get. Tickets in Toronto cost $25 to $175. It’s running from June 8-10

Spades, the first of four plays in Robert Lepage’s four-play series Playing Cards. The Quebec director delves into the meaning of war, focusing on the cities of Las Vegas and Baghdad. Running from June 13-17, tickets cost $45 to $90.

Sadeh21, Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company presents its new full-length choreographed show. Tickets are $35 to $85 and the show is on from June 14-16.

Love Over and Over, features the songs of Kate McGarrigle. Friends and family gather to celebrate the life and work of the beloved Canadian songwriter. Performers include her sisters Anna and Jane, children Rufus and Martha Wainwright, plus friends Emmylou Harris, Bruce Cockburn, Jane Siberry and Robert Charlebois. June 15, tickets are $30 to $250.

The other way to appreciate Luminato is to simply pick a few dates to visit Toronto and check out the events calendar online.

Created as a cultural arts festival meant to encompass all creative fields and bring Canadian artists to the forefront (and shine a more positive international light on the city after the SARS scare of 2003), the festival offers something for pretty much any taste on any given day.

This includes Stewart Goodyear’s Beethoven marathon, in which the pianist will attempt to play all 32 of the composer’s sonatas – 10 hours of music – in one day; literary talks on the relationship between the U.S. and Canada, in keeping with this year’s sub-theme of honouring the bicentennial of the War of 1812, and free music concerts every night featuring artists from around the world, from Rufus Wainwright to K’Naan to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

“Luminato, in its short history, is really becoming the focus of a lot of world attention,” Zagier said. “Not only for imported shows, but for shows commissioned and new stagings of shows. … The festival is in a very unique setting, and a it’s very immersive experience.

In total, 33 free concerts will be presented, along with a host of free and ticketed shows and artistic installations at 26 sites throughout Toronto.

Over the course of the festival’s history, more than 6,500 artists from 35 countries have taken part.

Festival headquarters and scene of many of the free shows is at David Pecaut Square in downtown Toronto, near the corner of John and King Sts.

For festival information, including a full calendar of events and listings of hotel packages, visit luminato.com

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